Bernie Sanders introduces pro-pot legislation
If any doubt remained that Sen. Bernie Sanders is positioning himself as the most pro-pot-legalization candidate in the presidential race, he put it to rest Wednesday.
The Vermont independent went where no senator has gone before: He introduced legislation that would outright legalize marijuana. The bill would take pot off the federal government’s list of dangerous narcotics altogether. It would leave it to the states to regulate pot, the way they do alcohol or tobacco.
With the move, Sanders leapfrogs past Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, another presidential candidate, who has long favored loosening drug laws but has stopped short of championing outright legalization in the Senate.
Perhaps it is not surprising that Sanders, the most progressive candidate in the race, is hoisting the flag for marijuana legalization, but it is significant nonetheless. Sanders not long ago had expressed little interest in becoming the champion of pot advocates. He said there were more important things on his agenda.
read: http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-11042015-htmlstory.html
"It's a state and a federal issue. The federal issue is that we should remove marijuana from the Controlled Substance Act. That's a federal decision," Sanders told CNN. "The state decision is that we live in a federal system of government where issues like tobacco and alcohol are significantly regulated by the states. And I think that is a province of the states."
The bill is a long-shot in the Senate and Sanders declined to say whether he had any co-sponsors for the measure. But Sanders and others say it would allow growers and dispensers in states where marijuana is already legal to use the banks.
The proposal plays to his base of younger and more liberal supporters, who have helped build his campaign into one that packs arenas and has mobilized the grassroots. That momentum has been slipping recently, with the latest polling finding Clinton even retaking the lead in New Hampshire.
Sanders only recently staked out a clear position on marijuana, promising last week in a campaign speech that he would seek to place the decision with states. But he has been inching toward the proposal in recent weeks.
During the October 13 CNN/Facebook sponsored Democratic debate he said would vote in favor of a Nevada referendum to legalize marijuana. And he said Tuesday that he supported the Ohio referendum to legalize marijuana, though voters ultimately weighed in against it.
"The state wants to go forward, they should be able to go forward without legal impediments from the federal government, and that's what this legislation is about," Sanders said. "Colorado wants to legalize marijuana, it's their decision. If Alabama does not want to legalize marijuana, that's their decision. But if a state wants to go forward, it should be able to do so without impediments from the federal government, which now prevent stores that sell marijuana from using banks, because that's in violation of federal law."
read: http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/04/politics/bernie-sanders-legal-marijuana/index.html
The bill comes a week after Sanders first proposed reclassifying marijuana as a less-dangerous substance, arguing that doing so is an essential component of reforming America's criminal justice system.
"In the United States we have 2.2 million people in jail today, more than any other country. And we’re spending about $80 billion a year to lock people up. We need major changes in our criminal justice system – including changes in drug laws,” Sanders said at George Mason University on Oct. 28. “Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use. That’s wrong. That has got to change."
Sanders' bill differs slightly from the House version, which also includes structures for regulating marijuana. Polis' bill would transfer the DEA's authority over marijuana to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and would amend federal alcohol laws to include provisions for importing and shipping marijuana as well as other commerce-related regulations. The Senate version of the bill does not include these provisions.
read article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-marijuana-ban_563a3e21e4b0b24aee4858ae
read the full bill here: http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/sandersmarijuanabill11415.pdf
= new reply since forum marked as read
